For years, tourist beach destinations in Hawaii have supported the selling of fish food to attract fish when tourists snorkel or dive the reefs. Fish food, frozen peas, and other human food are not the normal part of the fish food chain. As a result, fish have been cutting back on their normal food supply and reefs have actually become covered in algae and otherwise less healthy due to the lack of attention of the fish, or due to an overpopulation of fish attracted to the human food.
In an effort led by the Coral Reef Alliance, a campaign was started to convince commercial entities to stop selling the fish food. Several organizations have agreed to stop state-wide including Long Drugs and Walmart. Read more about it.
It’s really great seeing companies begin to realize the importance of protecting our reefs from human interference even if it means reducing a revenue stream (even a small one). Now if we could only get more people and organizations to realize how much more important it is not to pollute our oceans, or overfish.
